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EBV, Lyme, etc. viruses and others reactivating due to w/d?


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Hi everyone. I finally went to a Lyme literate doctor. I was diagnosed in 2008, treated with doxycycline for two months, and told by every doctor after that that I don't have Lyme. Was told I have post-Lyme syndrome or Lyme-related fibromyalgia. I had a lot of good years and a few not so great ones. It's hard to parse out what was the result of a possible Lyme infection, what was due to long-term psych meds use.

 

This doctor I saw on Friday is one of the top in the area and she confirmed Lyme and coinfections (Bartonella and Babesia, but she's focusing on Lyme/Bartonella as I don't seem to be having any Babesia symptoms). What struck me most even more than Lyme (because I guess I wasn't really surprised to be diagnosed with something I had long suspected I had) is that from the viral panel  blood work she told me Epstein Barr virus, EBV, the one that causes mono and some have linked to chronic fatigue, has "reactivated" with positives in both IgM and IgG. She didn't seem too concerned and in fact said overall my case would likely be quite an easy one with only a limited amount of treatment but I was still thrown off. She speculated that EBV might've reactivated due to chronic Lyme/Bartonella infection or maybe due to compromised immunity this last year with job stress and certainly with benzo w/d. Was really, really glad she didn't completely dismiss benzo w/d and in fact seemed disappointed because she said it would be harder to get a true read on my actual symptoms because I am still experiencing w/d symptoms.

 

Anyway, I wanted to know: has anyone had any weird experiences with Epstein Barr or other viruses reactivating due to either benzo w/d or stress from withdrawal, etc.? I have to say fatigue has been the number one thing to hit me since I got off benzos. Admittedly my sleep became extremely disrupted and my eating habits tanked due to bad stomach pains--so this could lead to fatigue. But I'm just wondering if anyone else on these boards has had similar experiences.

 

If you know any good forums, I am open. Not ready to commit to antibiotics and antivirals as this will take a bit of a commitment, even if only for a few months as this doc suggests. Feel like I should wait it out a bit; I mean I've waited this long already.

 

But all this isn't helping the health anxiety that seems to have settled in post-benzo use.

 

Thanks,

HT

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Have you tried allicin or certrizine? Both have been used to treat Lyme. Allicin is available in capsule form as allicin Max or allimax, and certrizine is the garden variety anti

histamine, the impact on Lyme only recently discovered.

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Hi healing

I had reactivated EBV due to withdrawals. The symptoms of swollen lymph glands and severe fatigue eventually went from chronic to acute flairups & are now limited to a handful,of days per year.

 

Hope things improve for you.

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I also have EBV, have had it for over 25 years. I haven't had a bad flare up in a while though, stress is what triggers mine, also when I eat a lot of sugar. I've never gone the route of antivirals, too many side effects for me to take that chance, so what I do is rest when I have a flare up and try to stick to a very clean diet.

 

I hope you get to feeling better real soon :)

 

RG

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Have you tried allicin or certrizine? Both have been used to treat Lyme. Allicin is available in capsule form as allicin Max or allimax, and certrizine is the garden variety anti

histamine, the impact on Lyme only recently discovered.

 

Thanks formywifeandkids, I hadn't heard of that but will tuck it in my back pocket. I'm choosing not to treat Lyme as I'm not really convinced that's what's going on. I really feel like benzos have stirred up a storm of things in me, but the only conclusively positive one according to the bloodwork is EBV. I think I want to treat Lyme (if I choose to do that) from a place of healing. I was OK before the benzos: my gut was fine, my physical body was fine and normal. I had a few aches and pains days, but nothing to imply that Lyme or anything like that was active. After benzos, though, it's hard to tell up from down so I really want to wait to see how it settles before going the route of treatment. But I love keeping lists of things to explore that are benefit, especially if they're not hard hitting heavy duty drugs.

 

Thanks for the recommendation! :)

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Hi healing

I had reactivated EBV due to withdrawals. The symptoms of swollen lymph glands and severe fatigue eventually went from chronic to acute flairups & are now limited to a handful,of days per year.

 

Hope things improve for you.

 

Thanks, ihope. Things seemed to be getting better, then came to a head last week when I got a really high fever (103.5) and was knocked out for a few days. Fever broke after that and I felt mostly better from a lot of the symptoms of fatigue and stuff that I had been experiencing, but now it's back to my stomach pain! Liver enzymes were all out of whack, c-reactive protein high. Clearly I had some kind of bug that, I think, is now working its way out. I admittedly took a tylenol and I think I shouldn't have as that can mess with your liver. But so can having an acute viral thing.

 

Did your EBV ever manifest as stomach pain? I had the stomach pain since the start of my withdrawal process and it has morphed and changed, comes and goes... But since this fever it's been pretty persistent. Wondering if there's a link.

 

THanks,

 

HT

 

 

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I also have EBV, have had it for over 25 years. I haven't had a bad flare up in a while though, stress is what triggers mine, also when I eat a lot of sugar. I've never gone the route of antivirals, too many side effects for me to take that chance, so what I do is rest when I have a flare up and try to stick to a very clean diet.

 

I hope you get to feeling better real soon :)

 

RG

 

Hey, RG. Thanks for your feedback! I agree clean diet, rest, and stress reduction are critical. Hard when your body is going through such crazy symptoms and you are experiencing such awful anxiety. Wondering if you have ever had any GI issues related to the EBV? My stomach seems all out of whack these days. Not sure if it's still GABA receptors going crazy from benzo c/t or the virus giving me a hard time or what. My recent blood work was messy, but admittedly that was the day after my 103.5 fever. Maybe I'm just not over the bug yet? Frustrating!

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I've had issues with my GI long before I started taking benzodiazepines. But, when I do have an EBV flare up I definitely notice a difference and not for the good.

 

Also, my B-12 runs low when I'm hit with EBV, I used to give myself injections to help with the fatigue, had to stop those because it would rev up my benzo w/d.

 

Take care,

RG

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Hi healing

I had reactivated EBV due to withdrawals. The symptoms of swollen lymph glands and severe fatigue eventually went from chronic to acute flairups & are now limited to a handful,of days per year.

 

Hope things improve for you.

 

Thanks, ihope. Things seemed to be getting better, then came to a head last week when I got a really high fever (103.5) and was knocked out for a few days. Fever broke after that and I felt mostly better from a lot of the symptoms of fatigue and stuff that I had been experiencing, but now it's back to my stomach pain! Liver enzymes were all out of whack, c-reactive protein high. Clearly I had some kind of bug that, I think, is now working its way out. I admittedly took a tylenol and I think I shouldn't have as that can mess with your liver. But so can having an acute viral thing.

 

Did your EBV ever manifest as stomach pain? I had the stomach pain since the start of my withdrawal process and it has morphed and changed, comes and goes... But since this fever it's been pretty persistent. Wondering if there's a link.

 

THanks,

 

HT

 

Hope you are continuing to see some gradual improvements. It did take a longer time for me after cold turkey although the symptoms were identical but less severe with the taper.

 

My main symptoms were postural hypotension, (failure of BP to adjust to movement), chronic fatigue & flu symptoms. I did have bad bloating & abdominal discomfort but not so much pain. My liver enzymes were also out of whack.

 

There are many GABA receptors in the gut & stomach problems are unfortunately very common in benzo withdrawal, (leaving aside EBV). It seems they can be the symptoms that linger too but once your list of other symtoms has diminished, it can be a little easier to cope.

 

Best wishes

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Any real stress on the body can get those dormant viruses reactivated.  No one ever gets rid of viruses from what I've learned, they just lie dormant in the cells.  Benzo's sure do that to us, the stress from it. 
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  • 6 years later...
[e6...]
I was in treatment for lyme and 2 Co infections for 2.5 years with no relief. Only felt worse. I began a fast taper off Paxil around same time I entered Lyme treatment....go figure. I've had high EBV titers as well and was recently diagnosed with Mast cell activation syndrome. It's been 1 hell of a road with more questions than answers, that does not help with my anxiety at all! My Lyme doctor gave me a few antivirals to try for the EBV, did nothing.
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I was in treatment for lyme and 2 Co infections for 2.5 years with no relief. Only felt worse. I began a fast taper off Paxil around same time I entered Lyme treatment....go figure. I've had high EBV titers as well and was recently diagnosed with Mast cell activation syndrome. It's been 1 hell of a road with more questions than answers, that does not help with my anxiety at all! My Lyme doctor gave me a few antivirals to try for the EBV, did nothing.

 

What do we do? =[ what are your symptoms ?

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